With Loving Kindness
by Aiko Isari
Summary: (AU) Sequel to At Peace and Toll. Kindness and cruelty, love and indifference, reality and fantasy, there are wheels within wheels, and tears alongside smiles. Of course, there's also the glory of the Hunt.
1. Colorless

_**A/N: **_It's here! The true sequel to At Peace! It's been a year since that final battle, and the memory games and mind tricks aren't over yet! Even though Akari has managed to piece together the events that happened that day in Toll, is anyone ready for where it goes? No, but that's the exciting part! Let's get started!

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0\. Colorless

_"Which pawn are you? Black? Or white?"_

"You continue to toy with that board."

The voice, deep but disinterested, went over the child's head.

The boy shrugged. Trapped in this form again. He supposed he could bear with it for now, and resumed his careful movement of the pieces. "You figuring out why is half the fun."

The man snorted. "This is why you're not the Game Master. You cling too much and drop no clues."

"Well, the round hasn't started," Taiki pointed out with a laugh. "Why would I drop clues when you're not playing?" He spun his fingers around a long line of yarn, the spool lying somewhere on the floor.

Bagramon sighed. "Perhaps I should have drawn the girl to play. At least she might be capable of restraint."

Taiki laughed and began to thread needles. "But this _is _restraint. You just think Akari's tongue would wag faster." Another laugh. "You'd be surprised. Akari is a smart girl. Smarter than I could ever"

"It worries me when you begin complimenting your friends." The ornate chair creaked with use and age and each ruby red eye glowed in the dark.

"That means you're learning." Taiki waved his free hand over the board. "Well, whenever you're ready, dive on in."

Bagramon, if he were a lesser man, would have snorted. Insolent little mage.

Thus, the game continued.


	2. Opening

_**A/N:** _Well, I'm glad everyone's excited. Let's get right into it!

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1\. Opening

"_There's not much to a world with borders."_

Yuu rubbed his eyes and grimaced. He threw the basketball again, watching it bounce from the rim and fall through the hoop. Not that he minded the quiet, but it wasn't exactly fun to play by himself.

"Akari-san, what are you doing?" She wasn't great at the game, but she could play.

The redhead glanced at him from the benches. "Trying to get the stupid thing to work." She fiddled with the Xros Loader in her hands, its orange casing gleaming in the sun. Yuu dipped his lips into a sympathetic frown.

"Nee-san said she only made hers work on blind faith and immense irritation." He tried not to laugh. "I'm pretty sure you only have one of those."

Akari glowered at him. "Your support is appreciated." She sat back and sighed. "Guess I can take a break though."

His eyes sparkled. "Play with me?"

Akari snorted and pulled out a textbook. "Hell no. Where's Tagiru?"

"Detention." Yuu sighed. "He broke a window."

Akari groaned at the image. "How do you two get along?" She thought about it. "Oh wait." She grinned and Yuu rolled his eyes.

"He's the only person who signed up for the team that was able to actually throw the ball… barely."

"Barely." She scratched at a piece of notebook paper. Then her Xros Loader let out a loud beep. The chime melded with Yuu's half a meter away and he went to grab it.

The air wavered and within seconds, was muggy and the sky was an orange-yellow.

"Oh, come on!" Akari threw up her hands. "_Now_ you want to do this?"

She swore the next beep she heard was cheeky.


	3. Edges

_**A/N:**_ It's updated! Finally. Silly fic. I have to bribe you with other fics to write you. That isn't nice. But, here we are! Enjoy, guys!

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2\. Edges

"_What if I have limits but you don't?"_

Yuu looked around. "Akari-san, where are we?" He wiped his brow, and Akari thought his face looked a little green. She tried to smile, but the look in her eyes said it all.

"Well, somewhere we shouldn't be, I guess," she replied, looking around. It was that same place Taiki had shooed her out of like an errant child. Well, now she was here, and he was nowhere in sight. Neither of them had a Digimon, but they had legs. They could probably survive, so long as they were careful.

Akari _hated_ being careful.

"I don't think we have much of a choice," Yuu muttered. He shot Akari a wary look. "Let's stick close, okay?"

Akari nodded, biting her tongue.

Would they meet Taiki here? What would he do if they did?

She couldn't worry about these questions. They had to figure out just what this place was. And so they walked.

It was quiet for the most part. She swore she heard a splattering noise, but that could be anything at this point. She hurried on, glancing back to look for Yuu. His face still looked pasty but he held himself up and kept walking. Then he paused and looked to the right.

"Yuu-kun, what is it?"

Yuu shook his head and grimaced. "Thought I heard something…"

"Let's hope not," Akari muttered. "We can't fight."

"Sure you can," said a quiet voice over their heads. "You just have to choose to."

Akari felt her skin crawl and hated it.

"Don't worry, Akari," Taiki said, voice gentle. "I won't stop you anymore."


	4. Careless

3\. Careless

_"Some people think too much."_

"Why not?" Akari glowered a little, sickened with the idea that she was doing it. Not at her friend, not at the best friend who had meant so much to her, to them.

Taiki repositioned himself from where he sat on the roof of a building. "Because you can't stop now. Can't turn your back on things, am I right?"

Akari bristled, wanting to snap. But you could never deal with Taiki and be angry. He would win easily, he always had. Emotional imbalance was right up his alley. She had never realized how much of a pain it was to have to deal with that from the other side of the argument. "That's supposed to be you."

"Pinning all of your desires on one person is rude, remember?" Taiki swung his legs back and forth. "Right, Yuu?"

Yuu nodded before he could stop himself. He thought of Damemon and cringed. "What are you here for, Taiki-san?"

"To wish you luck." He looks at the Xros Loaders settled in their hands. "It's going to be a long Hunt. I don't know where we'll start. Just believe in yourselves… since I'm not the one you need now." He straightened and rose to his feet. With a wave of his scarlet Xros Loader, he disappeared into a portal.

Akari groaned. "Well that was helpful."

"That was careless," Yuu corrected. His face furrowed into a frown. "He said an awful lot for what he wasn't saying."

Akari winced. "That's how he's always been though. He never says all of it, just what we need, you know? Or what he thinks we need." She sighed. "We should get looking around."

Yuu nodded, and as they made to do so, there was a loud scream and the scent of burning moss.

They both looked at each other.

"Was… that Tagiru?"


	5. Forward

4\. Forward

"_Didn't anyone teach you how to march?"_

Akari had never had too many happy thoughts of Tagiru. It was rather hard to, honestly. He was funny, sure, and got along with Yuu, a miracle in itself, but he was never someone Akari could find herself hanging out with too willingly without a painkiller. She even had some right now. How convenient.

Tagiru himself was screaming, being thrown from side to side in the air, whipped about like a ragdoll. He would probably have been laughing if it weren't for the long scratch down his back. That was a nice sight of blood that none of them really needed.

"Arresterdramon!" He howled and a blue dragon rushed to him, punching the dinosaur in the face with what might as well have been orange boxing gloves. It didn't help Tagiru that much, sending him flying towards the ground. Thankfully, the dragon had sense enough to catch him. Well, at least he could do something. 'Arresterdramon' set Tagiru on the ground, then rushed forward again, punching as hard as possible. His gloves bounced off the armor and then he went to fly, glowing with purple flames. his green eyes were aglow with joy.

Akari groaned. Oh this was _so_ comforting. Not only was he here, but he had a partner as crazy as he was.

Today was turning out to be just great.

Yuu nudged her and she turned, looking to see Tagiru's fingers clutching something red and very familiar.

She threw up her hands. "I hate today."

MetalTyrannomon released a burst of fire, seemingly, right towards them. They rolled to the alley.

"Well screw you too," she muttered.


	6. Crosses

5\. Crosses

"_The burdens we bear are best left unnoticed."_

A colorful burst of power struck the dinosaur right in the eyes. He roared and fell back, letting the two run to Tagiru. Akari predicted that Yuu would start with a rousing face punch for his classmate.

She was wrong, it was a gut punch. Tagiru lost his ability to breathe for a good few seconds. Arresterdramon took that moment to spin his tail into the enemy's head and lunged forward after the falling behemoth.

"thought evolution was supposed to give you power," he grunted.

There were so many comments Akari could make to that. She settled for moving closer. "You keep hitting him on the armor," she said, thinking back to what little of the Xros Wars they had gone through together. "Off balance him and then hit him in the stomach. Like stab him."

Green eyes flitted onto her, aghast. "Whoa lady, we're not trying to kill him."

Akari turned back to the MetalTyrannomon as Yuu ran for a useful piece of pipe. "Well you should be."

"Spoken like a true soldier," drawled a familiar voice. The old man limped into view. "isn't this _fun, _Akari-kun? Yuu-kun?"

"Fun as a root canal."


End file.
